Extremists go on a killing spree in Punjab, Bhindranwale takes lead over Akali leadership

The crackle of gunfire continues unabated in Punjab. Last fortnight, even as the Government busied itself making a thorough overhaul of the security machinery terrorists had taken 50 more lives, taking their tally close to the 400 mark. And with the "moderate" Akali leadership too threatening to launch a massive "non-cooperation" movement from June 3, the portents were ominous.

What added to despondency at the end of a fortnight marked with hectic political activity was the realisation that Bhindranwale was emerging with a clear lead over the Akali leadership. Mutual allegations of assassination attempts notwithstanding, he was poised to strengthen his grip decisively on Golden Temple politics, the slender thread by which Punjab's fate hangs.

Conforming to a by now familiar pattern, the renewed killings began on the eve of the Akali Dal working committee meeting where the moderates, released from jails last month, were expected to adopt a conciliatory posture. Determined to vitiate the atmosphere, the extremists killed 15 persons in a series of coordinated attacks spread across the state within a few hours, including four Hindus pulled out of a bus near Faridkot. This was followed the next day with the shooting of two more bus passengers near Ferozepore who, ironically, turned out to be clean-shaven Sikh brothers.

Later in the fortnight, the extremists shifted focus farther from the border districts, killing four persons in a grain market near Patiala and, later, eight persons travelling by car near Jagraon in Ludhiana. But perhaps the most alarming piece of information was that the gang which killed people near Patiala had gone from Chandigarh.

Said a senior police official: "We could not have asked for a more devastating piece of evidence to prove that no part of the region, not even Chandigarh which was considered relatively safe, is free from the extremist threat now."

The extremist strategy clearly was to scuttle conciliatory moves and also intensify the campaign to intimidate non-Sikhs into fleeing from Punjab. Said a highly placed official: "For a long time now, their main objective has been to provoke some kind of a backlash in other parts of the country. With that, they will seek legitimacy for their violence with retrospective effect. The only bright streak so far has been that the rest of the country has shown restraint."

With the Government repeatedly failing to catch them in the act, the extremists were growing in confidence and had even begun handing out more direct threats to the moderate Akali leaders who now seemed too intimidated to even condemn killings of innocent people.

"It is all regrettable. I think the Government is behind it," said Longowal repeatedly as newsmen persistently asked him to condemn the killings. In fact, an aide was quick to clarify that "regret did not mean condemnation".

The Akali leadership's new agitation plan is seen in this perspective. Afraid of losing ground to Bhindranwale, the Akalis decided to follow the path of populism by asking people not to pay land revenue, water cess and prevent movement of foodgrains outside Punjab. Said Longowal threateningly: "This is the first step. The movement will be intensified in the course of time."

Sources close to him hinted at the possibility of a campaign to stop the flow of canal water and power to other states in the next phase. In any form, the campaign will mean a direct confrontation with the Government, beginning with the blockade of wheat specials that the railways run out of Punjab after every harvest.

The parapet at the top of the building where Bhindranwale stays being raised

While the Government was not too worried about collection of revenue, contingency plans were being made to form heavily armed mobile squads to escort the trains, nearly two dozen of which will have to be run every day for a fortnight to take away foodgrain purchased by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other organisations.

Said a worried official in Chandigarh: "This, indeed, could be a serious flashpoint. Worse, we'll be forced to take our attention away from terrorists to fight the mobs. The Akalis could not have found a better way to commit suicide politically."

Obviously, even from the most blatantly pro-Akali viewpoint the new agitation plan could hardly be called astute. Confrontation and deaths will strengthen the extremists and Longowal has no way of stopping them from completely taking over a campaign that involves direct, physical confrontation with the Government.

The plan has, in fact, been criticised even within the Akali circles as an "effort to fire the gun from the Bharatiya Kisan Union's (BKU) shoulder". The union, led by Sharad Joshi, had earlier given a call for non-payment of revenue and a blockade of foodgrain movement from June 3.

The absurdity of the Akali move has its genesis, as much else in Punjab politics today, in the realpolitik of the Golden Temple. Longowal had expected stout support from Parkash Singh Badal, Surjit Singh Barnala, Balwant Singh Ramoowalia and, most important of all, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) President Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

But after their release from jail, his illusion vanished fast. Barnala did not turn up for the meeting, Badal was non-committal and Tohra once again adopted his Machiavellian stance: threatening to give up the presidentship of the SGPC on the one hand and, on the other, going about organising the campaign by the five high priests to bring the two sants on talking terms again.

He came to the Akali meeting for a short while and gave the moderates the hope that he would back their efforts to get the five high priests to issue a Hukamnama (edict) against the killings. The moderates think the Hukamnama is the only device with which they can defeat Bhindranwale now and they can organise it only through Tohra, as the high priests belong to the SGPC.

But Tohra, so far known to be the king-maker in Akali politics, is playing a subtle game dangling a carrot here and brandishing a stick there. His strategy is to maintain equidistance, convince both groups that he controls their fortunes and, in the process, emerge as the pivotal leader.

Playing the same game, he told a congregation at Fatehgarh Sahib near Patiala: "If the Centre continues its high-handedness, every Sikh will have to become a Bhindranwale." But in Amritsar he seemed like working on an anti-extremist Hukamnama as the high priests issued an adesh - an order just short of the Hukamnama - asking the Sikhs to refrain from even indirectly questioning the authority of the Akal Takht.

Said a senior Akali leader: "Tohra has again proved to be the master tactician. He has made it clear that he has a decisive say on the question of issuing the Hukamnama. To that is linked the fate of both extremists and moderates". It is thus logical that now he has both groups eating out of his hand.

While Tohra pressed on with his machinations, the atmosphere inside the temple took a turn for the bizarre with Longowal deciding to pay back Bhindranwale in his own coin. In an awesome show of strength last fortnight, Babbar Khalsa, the extremist organisation known to be close to Longowal, paraded two of the eight "conspirators" who, they alleged, had been sent by Bhindranwale to kill their chief Sukhdev Singh.

Over 200 armed men took positions around the Manji Sahib congregation hall, where Longowal customarily addresses the jatha - courting arrest every evening - as Babbar Khalsa leaders brought the two captives to the stage. In the presence of a large audience, the Babbars played taped "confessions" and the two alleged conspirators took the microphone to declare that they had not said anything under coercion.

While the Bhindranwale camp dismissed the allegation as "contemptuous rubbish", it was seen as the Longowal group's way of retaliating for the allegations that they had organised the killing of Surinder Singh Sodhi in April.

The Babbars also sought the high priests' intervention for deciding on "adequate punishment" for the conspirators. "We will strictly go by the priests' advice," says Sukhdev Singh. For the security machinery, this renewed bickering was the best news in a harrowing fortnight.

Said an intelligence official: "These rounds of bloodless war dance will not destroy the extremists. But they will certainly make things easier for our boys. It is always possible to penetrate an organisation riven by internal dissensions." It was perhaps for this reason that the police had been able to make some significant arrests. Among those arrested were two of the men who killed Punjab Kesari-Hind Samachar editor Ramesh Chandra last month.

But senior officials admitted that these successes were still too infrequent to make any significant impact on the terrorists who have the inherent advantage of a partly, sympathetic population, sanctuaries in shrines and generous supply of sophisticated arms.

Israel-made bullet-proof vest seized from terrorists

The label

Israel-made bullet-proof vest seized from terrorists (left) and the label

According to police estimates, the extremists now possess nearly 300 Sten guns and machine-carbines, mostly of Pakistani origin and over 5,000 hand grenades of the high-explosive-36 variety pilfered from Indian army stores.

Even more worrisome for the Government, was the revelation that extremist hitmen often leave for their forays wearing bullet-proof vests. Last fortnight, the Haryana Police recovered one such vest from one Daljit Singh, arrested in connection with the attempt on the life of the Haryana assembly Deputy Speaker Ved Pal Singh in March. The vest has three bullet marks, confirming the Haryana police gunman's claim that he had repeatedly shot one of the extremists.

Most intriguingly, however, the vest bears a "Made in Israel" tag and initial intelligence inquiries say these are not sold in the open market. Said an intelligence officer: "The discovery opens endless possibilities. It also makes the situation so terribly confusing as, in the past, we have found some of the Kalashnikov rifles with the extremists to be of PLO origins. Either they have been busy shopping with a lot of money in mercenary markets or a powerful foreign agency is backing them." Officials, however, were busy trying to reorganise the police force and modernise equipment to match that of the extremists.

"As far as the equipment is concerned, the balance of quality is on their side," confessed an official describing how the policemen were still carrying the unwieldy second world war .303 bolt action rifles, which could only be a liability against urban terrorists. As part of a crash modernisation process, the Punjab Police has now placed orders for a thousand Sten guns. Similarly, the state police has also acquired a thousand new wireless sets.

On another plane, the Government has decided to give officers of para-military forces independent command of the newly formed commando squads without interference from police officers. Said a top-level Government functionary: "Let's have no illusions. We are in for a long haul. Worse, no one knows what is at the end of the tunnel. But the only way now is to build strength rapidly so that maybe, after some time, we are able to tilt the scales".

That could still be a bit optimistic. For the biggest strength of the extremists is not their armoury but the protection they get from the nature of Akali politics. Without the sanctuary of gurudwaras and the halo of dharamyudh, they would hardly be the uncontrollable menace to peace and security that they now are.

The strategy to remove these advantages will have to be rooted in shrewd political manoeuvring and negotiation. The beefed up police muscle could, at best, play a supporting role.

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